Daphne Neville at her home near Cirencester in the Cotswolds with Rudi, her tame Asian short-clawed otter
~ Country Life magazine, 11th September 2019 ~
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Meet Daphne Neville and Rudi the Otter in Gloucestershire this summer
Photo taken for the Daily Mail COPYRIGHT John Lawrence 07850 429934
Daphne Neville will be with Rudi the Otter, answering questions on conservation in the Cotswolds this summer.
Their last appearance was at the Frampton Country Fair, a traditional event held on Saturday 8th September where there was lots to do and see.
Photo used in the Daily Mail 02/04/19.
COPYRIGHT John Lawrence 07850 429934
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Filed under Animals, Cotswolds, Otters, Uncategorized
A talk on Otters at Nature in Art
Picture: Daily Mail – COPYRIGHT John Lawrence 07850 429934
Daphne Neville and her otter Rudi have been busy meeting visitors to the Cotswolds. Nature in Art is a fabulous gallery celebrating wildlife art in any number of different guises. It can be found in Twigworth on the Tewkesbury road out of Gloucester. More info here
Picture: COPYRIGHT John Lawrence 07850 429934
Daphne has been a film and TV actress since 1969. Since the early 1980s she has combined her career with conservation work with otters. This occasion prooved a wonderful chance to actually meet an otter and find out about the thirteen different species of otter from one of their most enthusiastic champions.
Nature in Art is 2 miles north of Gloucester on A38 SatNav Postcode: GL2 9PG
To see what else is on a Nature in Art, please click here
Filed under Animals, Cotswolds, Otters, Uncategorized
An interview with Daphne Neville
Daphne was interviewed recently about her home in the Cotswolds, which has often been used as a film location. After a number of television advertisements and drama serials such as Dark Secret and House of Elliot used the house, Daphne appeared in Cold Caller, an award-winning short film that made good use of the lake. You can read more about it here.
Rudi-the-Otter who lives in an enclosure above the converted mill, appeared in the movie Scottish Mussel. He played both himself and his mate in series two of The Durrells and featured in BBCTV’s Natural World Series where he was used to show how otters can smell underwater in the documentary entitled ‘Super-charged Otters’. You can see more photos of filming with the tame otters here.
Daphne is campaigning for ‘Animal alert’ whistles to be fitted onto vehicles. They prevent pets and wild animals from being run over. They can be obtained cheaply from Amazon.co here
Filed under Acting, Animals, British Film, Cotswolds, Film and TV, Otters, Uncategorized
Come Dine With Me
Daphne Neville and Rudi the Otter appeared in five episodes of ‘Come Dine With Me’, broadcast at on Chanel 4 in 2018 and repeated in the first week of September 2019.
By the end of the first episode #comedinewithme was trending on Twitter:
‘#comedinewithme Daphne is what is great about Britain..cute polite nice classy positive welcoming….’
‘Daphne is lovely #comedinewithme’
The only reason I tuned into watch #comedinewithme this week was to watch the delightful and lovable Daphne Neville she is the perfect dinner guest, she’s welcome round mine anytime otter too lol aww she’s just lovely.
‘I’m watching #ComeDineWithMe how cute is that old lady Daphne!! Ahhh’
‘Yes and we love Daphne too!! #comedinewithme
‘#comedinewithme I could not love Daphne anymore than if she was my own Nan!’
‘Aww I do love Daphne!! #comedinewithme’
‘We are only tuning in to watch daphne #ComeDineWithMe
‘Aww isn’t Daphne just the best!! #comedinewithme
‘I love Daphne on #comedinewithme
‘Daphne the perfect dinner guest #comedinewithme
#comedinewithme I totally want to adopt Daphne!!
Oh I LOVE Daphne, I’d score her night a 10 even if the food was crap! #comedinewithme #cdwm
Daphne opened Episode 5, being ‘first off’, with a can of tomatoes.
Daphne was interviewed in her kitchen and we met the guests as they came downstairs.
Every detail had been carefully planned. The wine was chilled, the table looked lovely and there was almost constant laughter. Viewers seemed to be engaged: ‘Go daphne!! #comedinewithme
Daphne prepared tomato and mushroom soup for her four guests, followed by wild salmon, only to find out that two of the guests disliked fish, which was a bit of a pity.
Viewers on Twitter were appalled: ‘So James wouldn’t eat Daphne’s main cause he doesn’t like fish but his starter is lobster? #comedinewithme
One of the guests, who was a stickler for good manners, became irritated by another member of the party and walked out before pudding, which was quite dramatic.
She rather blew her own words out of the water although Daphne said Anne later wrote to apologise.
There was a roar from viewers on Twitter:
#comedinewithme ‘OMG how rude is Anne?! Lecturing the others on manners and then walking out on Daphne?! Bitch!’
Suddenly there was one less. Daphne’s fans on Twitter were in uproar:
#comedinewithme Poor Daphne, completely bemused!!
Daphne kept going and the evening became increasingly enjoyable, especially when Rudi the Otter was brought down to meet everyone.
In the end, Daphne was awarded 28 points by her four dinner guests
The Twitter-atary added their opinion:
‘Everyone needs to protect and look after Daphne, that woman is a legend!! #comedinewithme
‘If Daphne doesn’t win I’m going to kill someone #comedinewithme
‘Anyone see the water sossig on #comedinewithme ? (accompnaied with GIF of an ottter)
‘Daphne is our winner #comedinewithme
#comedinewithme Can we have Daphne on every week please!
You can watch this week’s episode on Channel 4 catch-up here
‘Absolutely love #Daphne on #comedinewithme . . . What a legend! I want to meet her and her otter 
You can! Daphne and Rudi the Otter will be appearing at the Frampton Country Fair in South Gloucestershire on Saturday 8th September 2019. All welcome! You can read about the antics of Daphne and her tame otters in ‘Funnily Enough’ by Sophie Neville available online or to order at your local library.
Filed under Animals, Cotswolds, Film and TV, Otters, Television, Uncategorized
Daphne’s hand-reared otter Rudi has become quite a TV star
Daphne has been busy filming with her tame otter Rudi starred in the BBC TV Natural World series ‘Suppercharged Otters’ with Charlie Hamilton James, who he is investigating in Mark Wheeler’s photograph above. To read more about this, please click here or go to the Otters page on this website.
Rudi also appeared in the second series of ‘The Durrells’ as both the male otter Gerald Durrell captured on Corfu, and his mate. To read more about this, please click here.
Filed under Animals, Film and TV, Otters, Television, Uncategorized
A Granny’s Guide to the Modern World
The show that gained 9 million hits – originally broadcast on Channel 4 this August. Daphne appeared in all three episodes.
“The highlight of the programme….are three tremendous women” – The Times
In the first episode, Daphne and two friends are taken to Amsterdam in ‘this lively three-part series’ presented by Barry Humphries. ‘They were sampling cannabis in Amsterdam. Flames leaped up in their faces but only made them dissolve in giggles. It was shot in the Red Light District and is actually illegal but they enjoyed their trip (overseas).’
To see photographs and a review in the Telegraph, please click here
There is more in the Guardian, ‘They’re not here for the tulips’.
In Episode 2, Daphne and her two friends went off to try out virtual gaming and had fun ‘killing’ each other. She went to the hairdressers in Episode 3 , only to ask her stylist if she would make her look nice after she’d died – when she was in the coffin.
She threatens to climb out of a coffin next. OAPs on the rampage. There is surely to be another series. It is wonderful to see how gorgeous the senior citizens looked in their youth. Click here for photos of Daphne.
The clips have gone viral. ‘You’ve become an internet sensation, Granny.’
Filed under Acting, Television, Uncategorized
